A resection procedure involves excising a portion of an organ, approximating the surrounding tissue together to close up the hole created by the excision, and removing the excess tissue. Various conventional devices and procedures are available for resectioning lesions in tubular organs.
For example, several known resection devices and procedures requires at least one incision in an area near the portion of the organ to be excised for access to the lesion or treatment site (because, for example, the resectioning device may lack steering and/or viewing capabilities). Thus, the incision is required to allow the physician to access the organ section to be excised and guide the device to that section. Alternatively, when the organ section to be excised is beyond the reach of the surgical device, or the surgical device is not flexible enough to wind through the organ to the site to be excised, an incision will be required to position the device for the procedure. Of course, these incisions are painful and may involve a partial or entire loss of mobility while recuperating from the incision, in addition to recovering from the tubular resectioning procedure itself. In addition, the time required to recover from such a procedure is often longer than for procedures which do not require incisions.
One type of conventional resection procedure utilizes a circular stapling instrument in a tubular section of a tubular organ is excised, resulting in the tubular organ being separated into a first segment and a second segment. The end sections of the first and second segments are then individually tied in a purse string fashion, approximated, stapled, and the “purse stringed” end sections are then cut off. In this full circle resectioning procedure, at least one separate invasive incision must be made near the section to be excised in order to cut and individually tie the separate end sections of the organ. Also, a separate incision is necessary to place one part of the resectioning device in the first segment and a corresponding second part of the device in the second segment so that the device can then bring the first and second segments together to re-attach the organ sections back together. A first of these separate parts may generally include a staple firing mechanism while the second part includes an anvil for forming the staples. Thus, this type of resectioning procedure involves the drawbacks mentioned above in regard to procedures requiring invasive incisions. In addition, the separation of the organ into two segments creates the risk of spillage of non-sterile bowel contents into the sterile body cavity, which can cause severe infection and possibly death.
An alternative resectioning device includes a stapling and cutting assembly on a shaft which can be bent or formed into a desired shape and then inserted into a patient's body cavity. Once the shaft has been bent into the desired shape, the rigidity of the shaft ensures that shape is maintained throughout the operation. This arrangement limits the effective operating range of the device as the bending of the shaft into the desired shape before insertion and the rigidity of the shaft once bent require the physician to ascertain the location of the organ section to be removed before insertion, and to deform the shaft accordingly. Furthermore, the rigidity of the shaft makes it difficult to reach remote areas in the organ—particularly those areas which must be reached by a winding and/or circuitous route (e.g., sigmoid colon). Thus, an incision may be required near the organ section to be excised in order to position the device at the organ section to be excised.
In addition, conventional stapling devices include staple retainers which serve only a limited function. Conventional staple retainers which accompany stapling devices are generally intended to only secure the staples during shipment. This can be problematic as the surgeon has to use a separate instrument to gauge the diameter of an endoscope to ensure the endoscope is not too large to fit through the working channel of the resectioning device. The separate endoscope gauge could easily be lost during unpacking of the resectioning device since it is not attached to the device. In addition, there is an additional cost in manufacturing a separate endoscope gauge. There is thus a need for an integrated staple retainer which is capable of securing staples and gauging an endoscope and which can be placed within a resectioning device.
The full thickness resectioning device presents a unique challenge with the need to introduce a flexible endoscope through an internal lumen of the device. Flexible endoscopes are manufactured and repaired by numerous entities with little regard for standardization of maximum outer specification. The cost of repairing a damaged endoscope is high and the attempted forced introduction of a flexible endoscope into the full thickness resectioning device will damage the endoscope. There is, therefore, a strong need for a means of insuring that only endoscopes of an appropriate diameter are utilized.